Teen forced to commit horrific act of self-rape for criticising Chechnya’s ‘gay purge’ tyrant
A Russian teen was forced to strip naked and commit act of self-rape on camera after criticising Ramzan Kadyrov, the homophobic tyrant behind the ‘gay purge’ in Chechnya.
The 19-year-old was a moderator for an anti-government Telegram channel that targeted the Russian republic of Chechnya, the region controlled by Kadyrov.
He was forced to apologise for criticising Kadyrov’s regime in a horrific video that emerged on Monday (8 September), and quickly went viral on Russian on social media.
According to The Daily Beast, the footage shows the naked teen apologising in the Chechen language, turning away from the camera, then sodomising himself by sitting on an empty bottle.
Such punishments are routine practise for Kadyrov and his militia, who are famous for intimidating and torturing dissidents and forcing apologies for any critical articles. Even a negative comment on social media can be enough to bring persecution.
But the latest apology video is a new low even by Chechen standards, and sparked renewed calls for action against Kadyrov and his brutal regime.
Ekaterina Sokirianskaya, who helms the media watchdog Conflict Analysis and Prevention Centre, told The Daily Beast she’s been bombarded with messages from Chechen nationals all over the world.
“People are furious, many call to take up weapons; I can also see posts of other nationals in Northern Caucasus saying that if Chechens tolerate this, they have been morally murdered,” she said.
“Chechen women and men said they felt sick, shocked, humiliated; many did not know how to continue their life with dignity.
“The Kremlin officials should realise how much Chechen people respect traditions, many take this public rape allegedly forced by authorities personally, such horrible violation is a provocation of violence.”
There’s no record of a response from either leaders in Russia or Chechnya, but this is unsurprising given that Kadyrov routinely denies the horrors he sanctions.
A strong ally of Putin, he has previously claimed to have no knowledge of the many LGBT+ people that have been imprisoned, beaten, tortured and killed in gay concentration camps, despite countless refugee reports detailing the violent abuses they have suffered.
In fact he has forcefully denied that the anti-gay crackdown ever happened, dismissing the accounts as “nonsense”.
“We don’t have those kinds of people here,” he said in 2017. “We don’t have any gays. If there are any, take them to Canada.
“Praise be to God. Take them far from us so we don’t have them at home. To purify our blood, if there are any here, take them.”
